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III

UTILITY


To those whose intelligence and conscience had revolted against the
crude and immoral maxims mixed up with noble precepts in Revelation; to
those who recognised the impossibility of accepting the varying voices
of Intuition as a moral guide; to all those the theory that Morality was
based on Utility, came as a welcome and rational relief. It promised a
scientific certitude to moral precepts; it left the intellect free to
inquire and to challenge; it threw man back on grounds which were found
in this world alone, and could be tested by reason and experience; it
derived no authority from antiquity, no sanction from religion; it stood
entirely on its own feet, independently of the many conflicting elements
which were found in the religions of the past and present.

The basis for morality, according to Utility, is the greatest happiness
of the greatest number; that which conduces to the greatest happiness of
the greatest number is Right; that which does not is Wrong.

This general maxim being laid down, it remains for the student to study
history, to analyse experience, and by a close and careful investigation
into human nature and human relations to elaborate a moral code which